Cold. Clammy. Hard.

Luigi awoke with a yelp.

Everything around him was dark. Half his face was soaked in his own drool. He quickly pushed himself up onto his knees and wiped most of it away. Tentatively, he started to feel the ground around him. He was sitting on what felt like a whole lot of stone.

"What the…"

The rumbling of approaching heavy footsteps snapped him back to reality. Anxiety shot through him as he remembered what led up to his current predicament. Had Bowser actually knocked him out? Had he managed to pass out from fear? What happened?

He barely had a few seconds to think before a long stone hallway now fazed into his vision, dimly lit by a slowly approaching source of light. He could faintly make out long iron bars that stretched from floor to ceiling in front of him. It suddenly dawned on him. Someone had locked him up. And whoever that was was coming back. Now.

He scrambled around trying to find an exit, but Bowser's huge form was already towering over him again. A strange magical aura surrounded him, lighting up the carved stone walls.

Maybe King Koopa hadn't seen that he wasn't actually Peach. Maybe he still had a chance.

"Oh please, don't hurt me!" Luigi screeched out in what he hoped was a convincing falsetto.

Silence.

Wait a second. He felt his face with his hand.

"Looking for this?" Bowser rummaged a bit in his shell and dragged Luigi's pink veil out and over his shoulder, shaking it teasingly on the other side of the bars. "You lost it a while ago on the way here. Wanted to see how long you'd try and keep up the act."

Luigi made an awful sound and curled himself up.

"So, I assume you didn't let Peach in on your little," Bowser's sharp claws curled into mock quotes that bounced in the air, "scheme?"

Maybe if he didn't say anything Bowser wou-

"Well, did you?"

Sheepishly picking at one of his puffy dress sleeves, Luigi slowly shook his head. In hindsight, the plan had been flawed from the beginning. Mario probably wasn't even anywhere near the gardens when Bowser showed up. But it was a classic impulsive idea from his classic impulsive brother. And he had just agreed and gone along with it. Like a doormat. A classic doormat. He felt the last bits of confidence and self respect he'd been holding on to vanish.

Bowser stole a glance at the "princess" again, and pushed something that sounded like a low growl and a hiccup through his sharp teeth.

He was laughing at him.

Luigi sat in place for a bit, his arms hugging his knees. He was mortified.

"Alright, show's over. Let's get you out of here Linguini." He glanced over expectantly at Kamek, who had been hovering near Bowser on his broom. He cackled and waved his wand at the bars. An ancient sound of metal scraping against stone echoed for a moment, and the bars quickly shot down into the ground.

Luigi looked up past his knees, his eyes tear soaked.

"What are you gonna do to me?"

Bowser laughed.

"Not much, just drive you home."

What?

"Well, are you going to just sit there? If you want to stay, be my guest, but people don't really come down here anymore, so it might be a while before someone's around to let you out again."

As confused and terrified as Luigi was, he certainly didn't need to be told twice. He shot up onto his feet and hauled his dress up. One of his heels had popped off before he'd woken up. He stuffed his foot back into it and quickly hurried out of the cell, footsteps echoing scarily down the stone hall.

Bowser stole a glance at Kamek, who was still smiling creepily, and motioned towards Luigi.

"Kamek, if you would please."

Wand raised high, Kamek suddenly soared down towards Luigi. He held one of his arms up to his eyes and shrieked, anticipating the worst. When he didn't feel anything hurt or change, he looked up. A faint glow similar to Bowser's surrounded him now. He stuck his hand out towards the side of the hallway and sure enough, the warm aura around his fingers lit up all the cracks and textures in the wall.

"It's not too long until the way out. Once we leave the dungeon, please try not to make too much noise. My kids are asleep." Bowser motioned for Luigi to step in front of him and lead the way. He did, although a little reluctantly. Despite still being confused as ever, he wasn't about to argue with Bowser.

Walking back the way he'd seen Koopa and Kamek come from, Luigi tried his best to stay on guard as escape plans frantically bounced around in his head. He could almost feel his threateningly huge company's eyes boring into the back of his head.

Running might get him away from Bowser. Luigi knew from experience that the King was not very fast, but Kamek would be a whole other story. Plus, he had no clue how to get out of this place. He'd already mistakenly turned the wrong corners a few times, only to be told he wasn't going the right way by Bowser's frightening voice. The tall stone walls were like an infinitely winding maze.

As they trekked on, Luigi was surprised to see that most of the cells they passed were empty, save for some occasional wooden boxes and old furniture. Expectations of a scary dark prison started to fade away as they walked deeper through what looked more to him like a glorified storage locker.

Eventually, they came up on a hallway that was bathed in natural yellow light. And sure enough, at the end of it, Luigi could see doors opening out onto a more traditional looking castle hall. Unconsciously, he started walking a little bit faster towards the doors, his heels echoing loudly on the cobblestones.

"Hey, slow down. You're gonna make a racket." Luigi yelped as he felt Bowser's huge hand grab the back of his dress and pull him back. "I'm serious. If you wake my kids up I might just have to throw you back into the cell." Luigi immediately slowed his pace until he reached the doors.

Temporarily blinded by the light out in the castle hall, they finally pushed out through the open doors.

The inside of the castle was completely unexpected. Everything was beautifully immaculate. A sweet grassy smell flowed through the hall from the open ornate windows framed by billowing curtains that stretched from floor to ceiling.

Behind him, King Koopa was trying his best to close the huge doors, but years of wear and rust we're proving it to be difficult. Bowser decided he had had enough when the doors started making an awful screeching sound. He waved down Kamek again, who swirled his wand in the air and magically closed the way to the dungeon without a sound.

As they started making their way through the castle, Luigi could see that long green banners decorated the walls, all emblazoned with golden outlines of various residents of Bowser's kingdom. Entrances to huge rooms were guarded by intricately carved statues.

Up ahead, Luigi could see they were about to come up on a strange door. It looked pretty banged up and different colours of paint had been haphazardly thrown all over it. As they neared it, Bowser noticeably slowed his pace and started softening his footsteps. He pulled a claw up to his mouth and pointed at the gold plaque on the door. Koopalings had been pressed onto it. They trekked on.

Finally, the strange group came upon a set of massive beautiful green doors. On the right door carvings depicting King Koopa and his children participating in just about every activity you could imagine had been filled in with golden paints. The left door also had similar golden carvings, but these were of castle staff, performing duties, dancing, singing and posing.

"I'll take it from here Kamek, thank you."

Luigi held his breath as Kamek sped away and Bowser started pushing on the doors. If the inside wasn't all fire and brimstone, then surely the castle grounds would be more typical of the expected usual aesthetic. His toes pinched painfully into the tips of his shoes as he tried to catch the first look outside around Bowser's huge leg. Light spilled inside through the crack anddd…

Woah.

Chapter 3 Notes

Been a while! Life's busy but I made a promise to myself when I started writing this that I would see it through so I'm back with chapter 3. Thanks for reading.